Real-time in vitro dissolution of 5-aminosalicylic acid from single ethyl cellulose coated extrudates studied by UV imaging.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the in vitro release of 5-aminosalicylic acid from single extrudates by UV imaging and to explore the technique as a visualization tool for detecting film coating defects on extrudates coated with a thin ethyl cellulose layer. 5-Aminosalicylic acid extrudates were film coated with ethyl cellulose in a typical lab system coater equipped with one Wurster partition. Dissolution testing was performed first in a conventional paddle dissolution apparatus and second, in a flow through geometry equipped with a UV imaging system. Selected film coated extrudates from four different coating levels were placed in agarose gels and UV imaging was performed for a total of 240 min. Absorbance maps were obtained thus visualizing the release of 5-aminosalicylic acid over time and it was possible to detect a decrease in release as a function of increased ethyl cellulose coating weight gain. Using a calibration curve the released amount was calculated and the individual release profiles for each coating weight gain in general resulted in comparable release profiles. Furthermore, the release profiles were consistent with the dissolution results obtained from the paddle dissolution testing. The release from defect extrudates was visualized by the absorbance maps and the release was highest from the compromised part of the extrudates. UV imaging has proven to be a useful technique to visualize the release of 5-aminosalicylic acid from single film coated extrudates and it has potential for detection of film coating defects.

Evaluation of droplet size distributions using univariate and multivariate approaches.

Pharmaceutically relevant material characteristics are often analyzed based on univariate descriptors instead of utilizing the whole information available in the full distribution. One example is droplet size distribution, which is often described by the median droplet size and the width of the distribution. The current study was aiming to compare univariate and multivariate approach in evaluating droplet size distributions. As a model system, the atomization of a coating solution from a two-fluid nozzle was investigated. The effect of three process parameters (concentration of ethyl cellulose in ethanol, atomizing air pressure, and flow rate of coating solution) on the droplet size and droplet size distribution using a full mixed factorial design was used. The droplet size produced by a two-fluid nozzle was measured by laser diffraction and reported as volume based size distribution. Investigation of loading and score plots from principal component analysis (PCA) revealed additional information on the droplet size distributions and it was possible to identify univariate statistics (volume median droplet size), which were similar, however, originating from varying droplet size distributions. The multivariate data analysis was proven to be an efficient tool for evaluating the full information contained in a distribution.